


Please Don't Leave

by Xekstrin



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 03:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4288248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xekstrin/pseuds/Xekstrin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blake and Yang have a heart to heart about what happened. Blake wants to know if Yang still wants her; Yang wants to know: who wouldn’t?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Please Don't Leave

**Author's Note:**

> Set while V1 was still running; right before the season finale. As some of you know, Arryn (the voice actress for Blake) and Barbara (the voice actress for Yang) read the first half of this fic out loud not too long ago. It can be found on youtube.

 

Their efficiency as a team was at stake now. Running through drills without Blake wouldn’t do them much help in the tournament– if she returned in time for the tournament at all. Still, it killed time, and if she drove herself to exhaustion every night and distracted herself with her sore, buzzing muscles in the morning, Yang didn’t have to think about the fact that this was the longest she’d been separated from Blake since the moment they met.

She should have gone after her. 

It just seemed too cliché, you know? Blake just needed time to cool down. They’d all had arguments in the past; cramped quarters can make you hate your best friend, to say nothing of how it fared for four people with little to nothing in common other than their team captain. It was common practice to go out for fresh air after an argument. 

She was supposed to come right back.

Pulling her hair back into a messy ponytail, Yang stretched out the kinks in her back, crackles along her spine popping one after the other. Her breath turned to fog in the pre-dawn air, and once she was warmed up, she began to jog around the campus. She normally used the treadmill, but lately she had been doing this. If anyone thought she might be scouring the campus for any hidey holes where Blake might be walled up, they didn’t say anything. And wisely so. Any mention of Blake got you a cold glare, or worse.

Generally worse.

A shiver rolled down her sides, leftover rage still prickling at her from her argument with Weiss last night. Picking up the pace, she tried to forget about the implications of Blake’s confession which Weiss was all too eager to bring up. Expulsion. Arrest. Maybe even execution. Yang was a blur now, not looking for Blake as hard as she was trying to burn some of this excess energy, escape the fear creeping up on her heels. 

She didn’t want any of this to happen. There were way too many angles to look at this problem from, and trying to keep up with them all made her dizzy, especially the part where, oh yeah, Blake was a member of a notorious terrorist organization. Pausing for a breath three hours later and knowing that she didn’t have much time to shower and get ready for her first class, Yang sank down like a stone on the lawn just outside the dorms, too exhausted to think anymore. 

None of this made any sense. And as much as she wanted to have someone to blame, this was too nebulous a situation for such a simple solution.

“Um, hey.”

From above her. The tree branches. Pulling herself out of her stupor, Yang glared up, chest still heaving from her run and still angry at the world. 

It took her a moment to put it together: there was a boy sitting in the tree above her. The faunus boy waved down at her. “Hi,” he said, tail lolling behind him as he perched on a tree branch that looked far too thin to be carrying his weight. “You’re Yang, right?”

Yang blew out a heavy breath, wiping the sweat off her forehead. “Maybe.”

“I’m Sun.”

“Good for you.”

He grinned at her then, a brilliant smile that made her heart twitch, just a bit, despite herself. He was  _very_  good looking. “I’m Blake’s friend,” he said after a moment. “I just want you to know she’s all right, and she said she’s coming home soon.”

On her feet before the rest of the words left his mouth, Yang bounced up in a burst of strength to try and yank him down. But Sun was quick, darting further up the precariously thin branches. “Easy!” he said, face twisting into a scowl. “I didn’t kidnap her, Jesus.”

“Where is she?” Yang demanded, already plotting out her next move in case he bolted. “When is she coming back? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” Sun said, opening up his hands for peace. “Why don’t we calm down and have a nice talk?”

Her nostrils flared like an angry bull. “…All right, works for me. I was planning on cutting class anyway.”

That made him grin again, winking at her shamelessly. Dropping down, he stopped suddenly in front of her, hanging from the branch by his tail so that he lay suspended parallel to the ground. “Ooh, Blake didn’t tell me her friends were bad girls. Such naughty words comin’ out of your mouth.”

Like a switch, she changed her tone, sticky sweet and inviting. “That’s not the only thing naughty my mouth can do, you know,” she said. She waited for the familiar flash of interest to light up in his eyes before she struck, lashing out like a cobra to snap her teeth in front of his nose. She hadn’t missed on purpose; he darted out of the way again before she could taste blood. 

Dropping fully to the ground now, he crouched on all fours, ready to run away. “One more move like that and I’m leaving!”

“Then don’t talk to me like we’re flirting at the school dance.” Resisting the urge to throttle him senseless– he’d already dodged her twice, and she wasn’t going to risk chance number three until she knew where Blake was– she crossed her arms and made two fists, digging her nails into her palms. 

“Fine,” he said after a moment. Cautiously standing up straight, he rubbed the back of his neck, eyebrows furrowed. “…Fine.”

 

* * *

 

The steady sound of flesh beating on plastic, chains rattling, grunting. Blake hovered just outside the doorway to the gym, listening to Yang unleash her fury on some unsuspecting punching bag. If she was going at it bare knuckled, with only her aura to protect the small bones in her hands from shattering on impact, she must be in the foulest of moods.

  
But Blake had to talk to her first. Before anyone else. She needed to know what kind of environment she’d be coming back to, if she came back at all, and Yang was the best judge. Yang was straight with her, always honest, but never cruelly so. If anyone was going to warn Blake that a cadre of cops were going to be descending on her the minute she stepped back into their room, it would be Yang. If anyone was going to tell her that everyone hated her, but they were willing to grudgingly accept her back on the team, it would be Yang. And if anyone was going to sock her in the face and scold her for leaving… honestly it would be Weiss, but still, Weiss wasn’t her partner.

Yang was tiring herself out now. The punches were more spaced out, every exhale accompanied by a small noise of exhaustion, basically panting at this point. The gym was empty save for her, most of the other students having retired to their dorms hours earlier. Technically, they were out past curfew.

“ _Hah_ –!" 

Thwp!

” _Hah_ –!“ 

Thwp! 

” _Hah_ –!“

Thwp! 

” _Hah_ ….“ 

Bap. Bap bap. Another few half hearted jabs. Blake’s ears twitched, listening carefully. Her partner had settled on the floor, catching her breath as the bag swung back and forth, chain groaning. When she was sure Yang had finished her work out, she stepped quietly in, her heels only making the slightest of noise on the padded floor. She cleared her throat. Yang glanced up, disinterested, and then did a double take when she realized who it was. 

Still too winded to get up, Yang said, "What is it with you faunus and sneaking up on a girl trying to unwind after a hard day’s schoolin’?”

She flinched at the way Yang said that– faunus. The label that colored her every interaction from the moment she’d been born till the day she hid it away, her shameful secret. And now she was going to experience how it would come to shape her relationship with Yang, now that she could see her. The real her. 

“You spoke to Sun.”

“Yep.” Catching the bag on its down swing, she held onto it with one hand, her grip strength strong enough that she didn’t need to use the edge, just the padding. She let it go with a gentle shove, letting it swing once again. She lowered her head, turning aside just enough that her curtain of hair served as a barrier, blocking her expression from Blake’s view. “He’s a nice guy.”

“He is a nice guy,” she said, uncertainly agreeing. Then, taking a deep breath, she started. “Yang–”

But Yang didn’t let her finish, catching the bag as it swung back and thrusting it forward again, harder this time. “Funny, too! I didn’t like him at first, but, you know.” She rolled her shoulders, looking uncomfortable in her skin. “What can I say, I’m a sucker for a pretty face and a sense of humor." 

That didn’t settle well in her stomach at all, anxiety growing like a knot in her gut. But she kept quiet, knowing when Yang was on one of her winding speeches, the ones that never made sense at first until she came in swinging in the last round with what she really meant to say.

"He’s polite. So charming, once you put him in his place. Like a little kid. He likes to push your boundaries if you don’t set them firmly, so be careful with that.” As she spoke, she kept pushing the bag, swinging it back and forth, back and forth. “And he’s handsome.  _God_ , he’s handsome. He’s a dream. He’s kind to children. He’s a faunus just like you, so I bet you guys understand each other really well and you probably have a bunch of interesting conversations that I can’t ever hope to really empathize with because I’m a human and I’ve had things– not… not  _easy_ , but easier than you, if half of what I hear about the faunus is true.”

“Yang–”

Her partner looked up at her then, rooting her to the spot. Yang’s eyes were blood red, the veins in her neck visibly jumping. This was the first time Blake had ever seen her get this way without the resulting fires that usually occurred, and their absence was beyond unsettling.

Yang got to her feet, catching the bag in a roundhouse kick as it swung back at her. Her bare shin slapped against it hard, making it spin. “Oooh, I hate him!” she said, renewing her assault. “God, he’s perfect! So go ahead and just run away with him already and leave me here to deal with the fact that I just can’t compete!” She bit her lip, barely containing a scream of frustration with a spinning side kick, threatening to knock the bag right off its chain. “I’m– I’m full of– of anger issues and– and I’m _impatient_  and sometimes I don’t think things through and– well now obviously you can tell I’m the jealous type–”

And now Blake was beginning to see where Yang was going with this.

“If he were a girl I’d– I’d beat her up or scare her off or do something really, really awful, which I guess is just more proof that I’m no good– I mean I am good! I’m great, but I’m not– not good enough to stick around for, I guess. Which is okay!” she shot her a glance, the juxtaposition of her reassuring tone and the steam beginning to rise from her skin leaving Blake ready to bolt. She resumed boxing, using her fists now more than the finesse of her kicks, knee and elbow strikes long forgotten. “But he’s a guy and I can’t– it’s a completely different ball game, I don’t know how I can fight to win in this scenario, _and I hate him_!”

WHAM!

One last punch, a straight. Flames raced up the sides of her forearms, puffing out in a jet of fire that blasted through the punching bag to the wall on the other side of the gym, leaving a greasy black stain. Yang stood with her fist outstretched until it cooled off, the smoke rising and dissipating in the draft from the vents. Exhausted, she held onto the bag with both hands, steadying it before she leaned against it, letting it hold her up as she clung to it. “So yeah,” she said, as though that finished it, face turned away from Blake with her cheek against the sticky plastic.

Blake waited, wanting to make sure Yang didn’t have anything else to get off her chest, before quietly murmuring, “…I just wanted to know if I could come home.”

Still drooping, with her hold on the bag the only thing keeping her upright, Yang’s shoulders stiffened in surprise. Then she swung around, lifting her feet a few centimeters off the floor so that when the bag spun, she was facing Blake again. “…What?” she said, forehead wrinkling in confusion as her heels caught the floor.

“I came to see if you still wanted me on your team,” she clarified, as carefully as possible.

Yang stared at her still, jaw working. Clench, unclench. “I thought–” Standing up straight and letting go of the bag, she rubbed the heels of her palms into her eyes. It took her a moment to sift through her thoughts, obviously strained. When she looked up again, Blake saw that she’d also been trying to stymie the flow of tears that were running down her face. “I th-thought you came to say goodbye.”

Despite it all, Blake barked in laughter, eyes widening in shock. “ _What_?” It soured Yang’s expression right up, doing a better job of shutting the floodgates than anything Yang herself could have attempted. “Yang… you are… the most dramatic person I’ve ever known.”

“But–” she stepped forward, gesturing to herself, to Blake, to the punching bag. “But Sun said– Sun said– He said you didn’t want to be around us anymore!”

“He said that?” Blake asked, quietly, but with undeniable focus. 

Flushed from her exercise as she was, it was hard to tell that Yang might have been blushing. But Blake had been her partner long enough to know other tell tale signs of fluster, the way she fiddled with her hair, or turned aside, or twiddled her fingers. “He implied it,” she said after a moment of bluster.

“He implied it.”

Yang flinched guiltily. “Or maybe… maybe I kind of inferred it.”

“You inferred it.” Her eyebrow rose. “From something he said?”

Yang scuffed the ground with her foot, finding her toes especially interesting now, angrily wiping at her face to try and hide her shame. “…From… my own crazy-panicked-jealous-upset-you-ran-away-thoughts?”

How had this turned into such a mess? Walking over to her partner, Blake pulled her into a hug, arms tight around her waist. “Oh, Yang. I’m so sorry. If you’re like this, I can only imagine how Ruby is acting.”

Yang returned it tenfold, nearly crushing her. “You’ll find out eventually.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Well, good!” Twisting suddenly, Yang used her position to score a solid kidney punch on her partner, making her yelp in pain. “Because you’re a huge stupid jerk!”

Flinching away, Blake hissed at her outright. It surprised Yang enough that she paused mid-punch, the next one aimed at her shoulders. “Ow! What was that for?” she grumbled, backing away a safe distance.

“For running away and making us worried sick!” she raised her fist, bopping Blake gently on the tip of her nose. “Weiss got her love taps already, _trust me_ , so it’s your turn, miss!”

Blake couldn’t help a slow grin spreading across her face. “You hit Weiss?”

“Hell yeah I hit Weiss.” She put her hands on her hips, snorting heavily. “And I’ll do it again if you two don’t knock it off and talk things out like team mates! So come here for your second love tap. I’m gonna make it extra special.” Lifting up her hand, she made a  _c'mere_  gesture, glowering terribly at Blake.

She shook her head. “I got one for running away? …Fine. But what else did I do to deserve a beat down?”

Suddenly serious, Yang stared her down. “You lied to us,” she said, and the truth of what she said stung. “You lied to my sister, and to me. You were a criminal, and you could have put us in danger, and you didn’t trust us. You lied about your past, and you lied about who you are.” She pursed her lips. “… _And_  you ran off with that monkey boy.”

“Yeah.” Blake honed in on that. “You’re really stuck on that point, aren’t you. Partner.”

“How I feel is irrelevant.”

“Is it really?”

Yang stamped her foot, a gout of flame shooting up and sparking through her hair. “It IS really! Now brace yourself and accept my platonic and gentle fist to the face and we can all go home with the slate clean!”

Her first instinct was to contest it– Yang had never hit her before, and she wasn’t about to start letting people boss her around over one mistake. But the more she thought about it, the more the guilt of her actions compounded until she was closing her eyes and letting her hands fall to her sides, truly convinced that this might be the start of her redemption after all. She’d hurt people. A lot of people. Maybe not directly, but the Schnees never hurt people directly either, did they? It was all in the runaround, “one mistake” leading into another, and another, until she was so wrapped up in that toxic environment she didn’t know how to escape.

She was so tired.

She was close enough to Yang to feel her body tense up for the blow, but she herself stayed strangely limp. Yang hesitated– and then brushed the back of her fingers across Blake’s cheek, caressing it softly. Frowning, Blake was about to ask when she’d get on with it already when she leaned down and tilted Blake’s head up to kiss her. Shocked into stillness, Blake opened her eyes to see Yang, uncomfortably close, grinning down at her. “Told you it was special,” she said, sounding confident even as her voice trembled. All of her was trembling, actually, and not from the exertion of her workout. She was scared.

Of Blake?

“What…” Blake’s lips formed words, but they all fell flat. Of course she’d known, even before Yang’s outburst, that her partner liked her. But they never spoke about it, not wanting to break the fragile peace of their tiny dorm room with the tension that might cause. “What?”

“You lied to us,” Yang said again, “About who you were, and what you did.” Cupping Blake’s face with both hands now, she ran a thumb across her cheek, captivating her with her soft lilac eyes. “And that’s okay. Everything you’ve done before now doesn’t matter to me, and it doesn’t matter to our friends. Whoever you were before– White Fang, whatever– You’re a member of Team RWBY now, and you’re my partner and I love you.” Her face went scarlet, her word filter failing her again. “And so do they!” she added. “Even Weiss! We all love you and we miss you.”

Letting her go, Yang hung her head in apology. “So please stay with us. I don’t know what I’d do with myself if you left for good.”

Still reeling from the kiss and the intensity of Yang’s confession, Blake shook her head, just a little bit. “But Weiss…”

“We’ll deal with Weiss together. You,” she prodded her in the shoulder. “Need to catch up with our fearless leader for our strategies, because we have a tournament to win.” She flashed her a grin, trying to hide how much she still shook from nerves. “Or did you forget?”

Blake smiled. “I didn’t.”

“So?” Yang gestured for her to shoo. “Get to it. You know where the dorm rooms are, kitten. I have to, um,” she glanced over her shoulder at the gym bag. “Clean up my messes.”

Though her cynicism held strong, wanting her to argue with Yang that it couldn’t be that simple, Yang was already unhooking the bag and carting it away, whistling loudly, pleased with herself and the world. As she turned to leave, though, a thought struck Blake. 

She called out to her partner. “Yang?”

Yang smiled at her, the bag hefted over her shoulder. “Yes?”

“You just called me kitten. How did you know I was a cat faunus?”

Rubbing her nose to try and hide her guilty grin, Yang glanced away. “Well,” she said, shifting the bag so that the weight was more evenly distributed. “I guess I’ve just sort of… always known you were! Honestly I’m surprised that everyone else was surprised, you know?” She sounded like she was confessing, her voice getting fainter as she went further into the empty gym. “Maybe it’s because we’re partners?”

Maybe it was.


End file.
